The Composition and Spatial Patterns of Bacterial Virulence Factors and Antibiotic Resistance Genes in 19 Wastewater Treatment Plants

Abstract

Bacterial pathogenicity and antibiotic resistance are of concern for environmental safety and public health. Accumulating evidence suggests that wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are as an important sink and source of pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Virulence genes (encoding virulence factors) are good indicators for bacterial pathogenic potentials. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of bacterial pathogenic potentials and antibiotic resistance in WWTPs, bacterial virulence genes and ARGs in 19 WWTPs covering a majority of latitudinal zones of China were surveyed by using GeoChip 4.2. A total of 1610 genes covering 13 virulence factors and 1903 genes belonging to 11 ARG families were detected respectively. The bacterial virulence genes exhibited significant spatial distribution patterns of a latitudinal biodiversity gradient and a distance-decay relationship across China. Moreover, virulence genes tended to coexist with ARGs as shown by their strongly positive associations. In addition, key environmental factors shaping the overall virulence gene structure were identified. This study profiles the occurrence, composition and distribution of virulence genes and ARGs in current WWTPs in China, and uncovers spatial patterns and important environmental variables shaping their structure, which may provide the basis for further studies of bacterial virulence factors and antibiotic resistance in WWTPs.

Effects of graphene oxide on the performance, microbial community dynamics and antibiotic resistance genes reduction during anaerobic digestion of swine manure

“…For instance, the increasing enrichment of tetX and bla CTX-M could be associated with Methanospirillum which also increased along with AD, and Lactobacillus, Streptococcus and Atopostipes were all depicted to be the common host bacteria of ermB, tetM and mcr-1, and these bacteria mainly originated from swine manure and were reduced significantly after AD. These potential host bacteria may be not a real ARB yet, and the link was just functional, but it would make sense considering that the functional link make it have the best chance of becoming ARB (Zhang et al, 2016a). Besides, the identified host bacteria of mcr-1 (Escherichia) was also distinguished through network analysis, and Escherichia was also identified to be the host of ermB and tetM, while its abundance was reduced to below detection after AD, which could also well explain the changes of ermB, tetM and mcr-1.…”

Research and Technological Advances Regarding the Study of the Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes and Antimicrobial-Resistant Bacteria Related to Animal Husbandry

“…This makes it a specific technology that potentially can give quantitative results. The use of GeoChip has grown to include its use in ecosystem ARG detection due to its power in providing sensitive, specific, and quantitative information with good repeatability in water [11,113,114] and extreme environments [115]. However, there are currently no research publications that have used this technology to analyze ARG pollution caused by animal husbandry.…”

Virulence factor activity relationships (VFARs): a bioinformatics perspective

“…More recent studies in wastewater treatment plants have used shotgun metagenomics and other tools to analyze the abundance of virulence genes 57 and co-presence of virulence and antibiotic resistance determinants and associated environmental factors. 58 Similar studies are available for samples from water treatment plants 59 and drinking water distribution systems. 60 …”

“…72 For selected niches, many assays targeting virulence and resistance determinants are available on simpler platforms. 58,73,74 It is anticipated that future studies will focus on analyzing linkages among clusters of virulence genes, mobile genetic elements, and resistance genes to determine the health risk in environmental samples. 75 …”